Use Alloy Self-Service Assistant bot in Teams
Updated in 2021.1
This page describes how use the Alloy Self-Service Assistant bot to communicate with the Alloy Navigator Express Self Service Portal in your Microsoft Teams app. See how to add the bot, where to use it, what you can do with the bot, and what Alloy Navigator Express objects you can access in Teams.
Add the bot to Teams
At first, you may need to add the bot to Microsoft Teams before you can use it. If you don't see Alloy Self-Service Assistant app in the left pane, click the ellipsis button (More added apps), and then select Alloy Self-Service Assistant.
Where can you use the bot?
The bot follows your commands. The first scenario is when you send commands in a private chat with the bot, and the bot replies to your commands by messaging you back. The other scenario is when you communicate with the bot without navigating away from a conversation with somebody else or create tickets from somebody's Teams messages. In that case, the bot replies in pop-ups.
IMPORTANT: In any scenario, only you can see what the bot replies.
Chatting with your Alloy Self-Service Assistant
To send a command to Alloy Self-Service Assistant in a one-to-one conversation with the bot, click into the compose message box to reveal the Suggestions menu, select a command from the drop-down list, and send it. Alternatively, you can type a command directly into the message box.
TIP: Every command has a long and a short form. For example, you can type lt instead of list tickets. For details, see Reference: Alloy Self-Service Assistant bot commands.
Using Alloy Self-Service Assistant when communicating with someone else
To add Alloy Self-Service Assistant to all your chats and channels, use a messaging extension. This is the icon 
at the bottom of your Teams window. If you don't see the icon, click the ellipsis button (Messaging extensions) at the bottom, find Alloy Self-Service Assistant, and pin it. Then you can send commands to Alloy Self-Service Assistant when chatting with other people, and the bot will reply in pop-ups.
NOTE: An example of using the Alloy Self-Service Assistant extension is when you need to mention a ticket you once created but cannot remember the details. Tell Alloy Self-Service Assistant to list your tickets, and you will quickly find the right one. Another example is when you search the knowledge base to find a ready-to-use solution and then proudly paste it into your chat.
Creating tickets from Teams messages
You can use the bot to quickly create a ticket based on somebody's (or yours) message. The message text will become a ticket description, and all you will have to do is polish it and add a summary. For details, see Create tickets.
What can you do with the bot?
Whether in a private chat with Alloy Self-Service Assistant or when chatting with other people, you can ask the bot to do these tasks for you:
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List your tickets so you can quickly locate a specific one and update it or drill down to its details.
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Create tickets to report issues immediately.
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View a ticket by its number to get into what's going on with the issue you have reported and optionally update it.
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List your approvals, so you can view all requests pending your approval and take action right now.
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Search the knowledge base to quickly find how-tos and ready-to-use solutions.
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View an article by its ID to view the contents of the knowledge base article whose IDÂ you happen to know.
INFO: For a complete list of bot commands and their long and short forms, see Reference: Alloy Self-Service Assistant bot commands.
NOTE: To let the bot identify you, it is required that you have a Person record in Alloy Navigator Express, and the email address in that record matches the email address in your Microsoft Teams or Microsoft 365 account. Otherwise, the bot will throw an error message. If an error occurs, contact your Alloy Navigator Express administrator.
List your tickets
To list all your open tickets, use the list tickets (or lt) command.
To see the details of a ticket, click View Details. The bot will open the ticket details, as shown in View a ticket by its number, and prompt you to update it or view its history.
NOTE: When you have many open tickets, the bot will show only the ten most recent of them in the carousel and prompt you to visit the Self Service Portal to see a complete ticket list.
Create tickets
You can create new tickets from scratch or create them from Teams messages.
To create a new ticket from scratch:
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Use the new ticket command to bring out a short form.
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Specify a ticket summary and description, and click OK.
To create a ticket from a message in Teams:
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Hover over a message to reveal a bar with quick reactions at the top of the message.
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Click the ellipsis button (More options), and then select More actions > New ticket in Alloy Navigator. A ticket creation form opens up, with the message text in the Description field.
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Add a summary and optionally edit the description, and click OK.
As the bot creates a new ticket, it will send you its number. You can click that number to open your ticket on the Self Service Portal.
View a ticket by its number
To view the details of a ticket by its number, use the ticket command and specify a ticket number.
To update the ticket with your comment, click Update. To see the history of ticket updates, click History.
List your approvals
To list all requests pending your approval, use the list approvals command.
To approve or reject a request, click Approve or Reject, provide a comment, and click OK.
If you want to see the request details before deciding anything, click View Details, and then pass your verdict on the request details form.
Search the knowledge base
To search the knowledge base, use the search articles command and type in the text to search for. The bot will find all the articles that contain your text.
To see the content of an article, click Details.
View an article by its ID
To view the content of a knowledge base article by its ID, use the article command and specify an article ID.
What Alloy Navigator Express objects can you access in Teams?
The Alloy Self-Service Assistant bot mimics the Self Service Portal behavior for regular users, which means that it gives you access to these Alloy Navigator Express objects:
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Your own open tickets. You can view non-closed
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Approval requests pending your approval. You can work with those Approval Requests that are assigned to you and have a "Pending" status.
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Public Knowledge Base articles. You have access to public Knowledge Base Articles with a "Live" status.